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DOG LAW REFORM Submission to the Government during its Review of the Dog Control Act 2000 TOPIC: Innocuous-event Barking Innocuous-event barking occurs when any dog barks at any innocuous event such that any person is distressed by the noise. With dogs now so commonly confined almost permanently to their backyards over 24 hours every day of the week with nothing to do and under circumstances which are psychological torture for many, it is a natural reaction for an animal congenitally programmed for sociability rather than isolation to be interested in (or excited by) any event that will interrupt the boredom of its unnatural life. This may be occasioned by a pedestrian walking the footpath outside or near the dog’s prison yard, the postman on his normal rounds, a woman delivering advertising literature into letterboxes, by the falling of a leaf, or even by the rustling of paper in the breeze that is emitting ultrasound that we cannot hear but which the dog can. Recommended: 1. That any useless and unnecessary barking of any dog that disturbs or harasses any person in the course of his being in or moving about the area containing the dog be termed Innocuous-event Barking and be made an offence. 2. That any person’s complaint be investigated forthwith, and remedial action be implemented within one hour where possible. |